The Transfer Tavern

Landing Bale this summer would be seriously bad news for this £22.5m-rated Tottenham ace

Tottenham supporters have been significantly more upbeat in the Transfer Tavern this week after seeing their team put last week’s Champions League disappointment behind them with a comfortable 4-1 win at Bournemouth in the Premier League on Sunday.

Mauricio Pochettino’s men bowed out of Europe’s elite competition last Wednesday courtesy of a 4-3 aggregate defeat to Italian giants Juventus, this all after drawing 2-2 in Turin in the first leg to make them favourites for progression at Wembley. And it appears that their European hangover affected them in the early stages at the Vitality Stadium on Sunday too as Junior Stanislas gave the Cherries a seventh minute lead, only for a brace from Son Heung-min as well as goals from Dele Alli and Serge Aurier to seal a routine success for Spurs, in turn moving them up to third place in the Premier League.

As such, there have been several buoyant Tottenham fans in the Tavern in recent times, many of whom are hoping that their side can build upon Sunday’s fine win and performance by getting past Swansea City in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup this weekend.

In the meantime though, there has been much for our resident Spurs supporters to get their teeth into, not least recent reports suggesting that reported target Gareth Bale could be set to leave Real Madrid this summer.

And while there’s little doubting what an excellent addition he’d be to Pochettino’s squad, landing the Wales international this summer would be seriously bad news for Erik Lamela.

Ultimately, the Argentina international is slowly but surely working his way back to full fitness after spending a year on the sidelines with a hip problem, this all after arguably his best season in a Spurs shirt back in 2015/16 in which he scored 11 goals and laid on ten assists to help the club to third place in the Premier League.

However, in the time the 26-year-old has been recovering from two hip operations, Son Heung-min has hit the heights, with the 25-year-old netting a remarkable 18 goals for the club this season, adding to the 21 he netted for the North London outfit last term to become one of their most influential players.

As such, Lamela is struggling to dispose the South Korea international in Pochettino’s side, and with Alli and Christian Eriksen continuing to do well, the Argentine is already low enough on the Spurs pecking order.

And adding Bale, who on his day is one of the best players in Europe, is only going to push him further away from the first team, at a stage of Lamela’s career in which, at the age of 26, he would have been looking to push on and reach his peak.

Harry Kane’s expected lengthy absence in the coming weeks may give the 26-year-old the opportunity he was after, but when the current crop of players are fully fit and given the form they are in, Lamela is unlikely to command a regular place in Tottenham’s starting eleven.

Adding Bale to those ranks is only going to push him down the pecking order even further, in a possible summer deal which would be seriously bad news for the £22.5 million-rated ace (as per Transfermarkt).